No. 5 seed Tommy Paul and No. 6 seed Jenson Brooksby were among the several Americans who won their respective first-round matches Tuesday at the Atlanta Open.
Paul breezed past countryman and wild card Jack Sock 6-1, 6-1, while Brooksby eliminated France’s Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-1. In another all-American match, Mackenzie McDonald outlasted Denis Kudla 6-2, 7-6 (8) after Kudla fumbled away a 5-1 lead in the second-set tiebreak.
American wild card Ben Shelton took down India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 7-5. Shelton will face second seed John Isner, the six-time Atlanta Open champion, in the second round.
Paul, Brooksby, McDonald, Shelton, top seed Reilly Opelka and eighth seed Brandon Nakashima are all vying to join the small group of Americans who’ve won a title in Atlanta — Isner, Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish.
Ilya Ivashka of Belarus defeated France’s Quentin Halys 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 and will oppose Opelka in the next round. Three more matches were scheduled for Tuesday evening.
Croatia Open Umag
No. 5 seed Alex Molcan of Slovakia was a 6-2, 7-6 (2) winner over Croatian Duje Ajdukovic in first-round action in Umag, Croatia.
No. 8 seed Lorenzo Musetti, fresh off winning the Hamburg European Open title last week, joined Molcan in the second round. The Italian advanced with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia.
French qualifier Corentin Moutet upset sixth seed Daniel Altmaier of Germany 6-4, 6-2. Lucky loser Norbert Gombos of Slovakia outlasted Argentinian Federico Delbonis 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, but his reward was a second-round matchup with Spanish teen phenom Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed.
Other winners Tuesday were Italian qualifier Franco Agamenone, Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis and Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles.
Generali Open
Dominic Thiem of Austria continued his comeback from a wrist injury by defeating Alexander Shevchenko of Russia 6-4, 6-2 in the first round in Kitzbuhel, Austria.
The former world No. 3 is playing the tournament in his native land on a protected ranking. He won 25 of 33 first-service points (75.8 percent).
Spanish No. 7 seed Pedro Martinez defeated Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (4), 6-3, while fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar upset No. 9 seed Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4) and Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner rallied to beat 10th seed Richard Gasquet of France 1-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann was ahead 6-4, 1-1 when his opponent, Gerald Melzer of Austria, retired.
–Field Level Media